Sana Ullah

Cloud-enabled wireless body area networks for pervasive healthcare

With the support of mobile cloud computing, wireless body area networks can be significantly enhanced for massive deployment of pervasive healthcare applications. However, several technical issues and challenges are associated with the integration of WBANs and MCC. In this article, we study a cloud-enabled WBAN architecture and its applications in pervasive healthcare systems. We highlight the methodologies for transmitting vital sign data to the cloud by using energy-efficient routing, cloud resource allocation, semantic interactions, and data security mechanisms.

Throughput and Delay Analysis of IEEE 802.15.6-based CSMA/CA Protocol

The IEEE 802.15.6 is a new communication standard on Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) that focuses on a variety of medical, Consumer Electronics (CE) and entertainment applications. In this paper, the throughput and delay performance of the IEEE 802.15.6 is presented. Numerical formulas are derived to determine the maximum throughput and minimum delay limits of the IEEE 802.15.6 for an ideal channel with no transmission errors. These limits are derived for different frequency bands and data rates. Our analysis is validated by extensive simulations using a custom C+ + simulator. Based on analytical and simulation results, useful conclusions are derived for network provisioning and packet size optimization for different applications.

A Review of IEEE 802.15.6 MAC, PHY, and Security Specifications

IEEE 802.15.6 is the first international Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) standard that supports communications in the vicinity of or inside a human body to serve a variety of medical and nonmedical applications. The standard defines a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer that supports several Physical (PHY) layers. In this paper, the key features of the IEEE 802.15.6 standard are presented. The MAC, PHY, and security specifications of the standard are explained in detail. Different communication modes and access mechanisms are presented. The Narrowband (NB), Ultra-wideband (UWB), and Human Body Communications (HBC) specifications are reviewed in terms of frame structure, modulation, and other important parameters. Finally, the security paradigm and services of the standard are highlighted.

Performance evaluation of RESTful web services and AMQP protocol

Web services appeared as a promising technology for Web environments independent of technologies, services, and applications. Currently, there are some issues related with this approach that should be studied. For instance, if massive quantities of data are sent to databases it can influence significantly the performance of the whole system. The Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMPQ) appears as a promising solution to address this problem. Then, in order to evaluate the performance of this approach, this paper presents a performance comparison study of RESTful Web services and the AMQP Protocol considering exchanging messages between client and server. The study is based on the averaged exchanged messages for a period of time. It was observed and concluded that, for large quantities of messages exchange, the best results comes from the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol.

Formal Specification and Validation of a Localized Algorithm for Segregation of Critical/Noncritical Nodes in MAHSNs

Timely segregation of critical/noncritical nodes is extremely crucial in mobile ad hoc and sensor networks. Most of the existing segregation schemes are centralized and require maintaining network wide information, which may not be feasible in large-scale dynamic networks. Moreover, these schemes lack rigorous validation and entirely rely on simulations. We present a localized algorithm for segregation of critical/noncritical nodes (LASCNN) to the network connectivity. LASCNN establishes and maintains a k-hop connection list and marks a node as critical if its k-hop neighbours become disconnected without the node and noncritical otherwise. A noncritical node with more than one connection is marked as intermediate and leaf noncritical otherwise. We use both formal and nonformal techniques for verification and validation of functional and nonfunctional properties. First, we model MAHSN as a dynamic graph and transform LASCNN to equivalent formal specification using Z notation. After analysing and validating the specification through Z eves tool, we simulate LASCNN specification to quantitatively demonstrate its efficiency. Simulation experiments demonstrate that the performance of LASCNN is scalable and is quite competitive compared to centralized scheme with global information. The accuracy of LASCNN in determining critical nodes is 87% (1-hop) and 93% (2-hop) and of noncritical nodes the accuracy is 91% (1-hop) and 93% (2-hop).

A Hybrid and Secure Priority-Guaranteed MAC Protocol for Wireless Body Area Network

This paper introduces a hybrid and secure MAC protocol (PMAC) for WBAN. The PMAC protocol uses two contention access periods (CAPs) for accommodating normal and life-critical traffic and one contention-free period (CFP) for accommodating large amount of data packets. The priority-guaranteed CSMA/CA procedure is used in the CAP period, where different priorities are assigned to WBAN nodes by adjusting the backoff window size. In addition, a set of security keys is used to prevent illegal access to the network. Analytical expressions are derived to analyze the average delay, power consumption, throughput, and packet loss probability of the PMAC protocol. Results derived from these expressions are validated by computer simulations.

RFID-enabled MAC protocol for WBAN

One of key attributes of WBAN is to extend the network lifetime, which can be achieved by adjusting the wakeup and sleep modes of the sensor nodes. Traditional low-power methods such as channel polling and periodic duty cycling are unable to satisfy WBANs requirements due to idle listening, collision, and control packet overhead problems. In this paper, we propose an RFID-enabled MAC protocol (RMAC) for WBAN that dynamically adjusts the wakeup and sleep modes of the nodes according to the traffic, thus solving the idle listening and overhearing problems. The protocol accommodates normal and emergency traffic using pre-scheduled and RFID wakeup methods. Analytical expressions are derived to analyze the power consumption and delay of the proposed protocol for normal and emergency traffic. The analytical expressions are further validated by extensive simulations using Network Simulator 2(NS2).

Documenting the indigenous knowledge on medicinal flora from communities residing near Swat River (Suvastu) and in high mountainous areas in Swat-Pakistan.

AIM OF THE STUDY The present study aimed at documenting the indigenous knowledge on medicinal flora from the local communities residing near Swat River and high mountainous areas in Swat, Pakistan. MATERIALS AND METHODS Field study was carried out in 2013-14. The area was visited 17 times, and semi-structured and open-ended interviews were conducted in both the plain area nearby the Swat River (4 villages) and mountains (7 villages). A total of 83 erudite informants participated in the interviews with their prior consent. The collected data were analysed through quantitative indices viz., medicinal use value (MUV), relative frequency citation (RFC), family use value (FUV), informant consensus factor (ICF) and fidelity level (FL). RESULTS A total of 78 species belonging to 45 vascular plant families were documented as medicinally important. Lamiaceae was observed the dominant medicinal plant family with 11 species, leaf was the most used part, and powder the most preferred preparation type. Maximum MUV (1) was shared by 15 species while maximum RFC (0.385) was demonstrated by both Brassica juncea and Lepidium sativum. Smaller families with mostly 1 species showed higher FUV while among the larger families Amaryllidaceae and Papaveraceae showed maximum FUV of 0.89 and 0.87, respectively. Highest FL was shown by Mentha arvensis (70%) against gastrointestinal diseases. Highest ICF was demonstrated by hepatic disorders (0.93). Furthermore, we revealed 108 indigenous herbal medicinal recipes, 6 plants added to the medicinal plant trade list, 1 species (Vincetoxicum arnottianum) reported for the first time as medicinal plant, and several new uses for 49 well known medicinal plants. CONCLUSION The present survey documents diverse plant species that are utilised by local communities for treating a broad spectrum of disorders. Quantitative indices helped in marking important and most preferred plants. To conclude, we recommend the plants for pharmacological studies, documenting new uses, especially Vincetoxicum arnottianum, never screened before.

A reputation system to identify and isolate selfish nodes in Vehicular Delay-Tolerant Networks

Vehicular Delay-Tolerant Networks (VDTNs) were proposed as a solution to overcome some issues found in other vehicular technologies. VDTNs assume the bundle layer placement under the network layer. This vehicular architecture can be applied in sparse regions characterized by sparse connectivity, long propagation delays, high error rates, and short contact durations. Although some of the major issues were already solved and several improvements were already achieved, VDTNs still have several issues that should be overcome. One of these issues is related with nodes cooperation and nodes share their own resources to deliver packets from others. This can be a difficult task if selfish nodes affect the performance of cooperative nodes. To detect, identify, and avoid communications with selfish nodes, this paper proposes a reputation system with four different reputation mechanisms and studies their impact on the performance of the network. This reputation system is enforced on two different routing protocols (Spray-and-Wait and GeoSpray). Across all the experiments, it was shown that reputation mechanisms that punish aggressively selfish nodes contribute to an increase of the overall network performance by increase the number of delivery messages and decrease the message average delivery delay.

A Review of Tags Anti-collision and Localization Protocols in RFID Networks

Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) has allowed the realization of ubiquitous tracking and monitoring of physical objects wirelessly with minimum human interactions. It plays a key role in a wide range of applications including asset tracking, contactless payment, access control, transportation and logistics, and other industrial applications. On the other side, RFID systems face several technical challenges that need to be overcome in order to achieve their potential benefits; tags collisions and localization of tagged objects are two important challenges. Numerous anti-collision and localization protocols have been proposed to address these challenges. This paper reviews the state-of-art tags’ anti-collision and localization protocols, and provides a deep insight into technical issues of these protocols. The probabilistic and deterministic anti-collision protocols are critically studied and compared in terms of different parameters. We further review distance estimation, scene analysis, and proximity localization schemes and provide useful suggestions. We also introduce a new hybrid direction that utilizes power control to spatially partition the interrogation range of a reader for more efficient anti-collision and localization. Finally, we present the applications of RFID systems in healthcare sectors.